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Buckets beaten but still lead

Ahkeem "Fatto" Boyd, from left, with some his SOS Basketball Academy teammates Shannon Harris, Seon Henry, Ahkeel "Smally" Boyd and Charles "Skip" Williams, who are competing in the Sangre Grande Ruff N Ready 4v4 Basketball League. Unbeaten SOS is currently in second spot on the table with 19 points.

No one could have predicted the result of the match-up between Buckets and Stories of Success (SOS) Basketball Academy, the top two teams in the Sangre Grande Ruff N Ready 4v4 Basketball League, in the end, it was SOS prevailing with a narrow 41-39 victory.

This was in the final match of a triple-header played on the previous Sunday at the Fos­ter Road Bas­ket­ball court.

The match was very intense as both teams exchanged baskets continuously, going all out on defence. On such defensive game plan installed by SOS of Maloney, was to attack the basket hoping to put Michael "Big Mike" Jerome of Buckets (Arouca) into foul trouble but his teammates Patrick Scipio and Nicholas Medina kept answering SOS's every basket.

In the final moments of the match with the scoreboard reading 40-39 in favour of SOS, Scipio fired a two-pointer from beyond the arc but missed which resulted in SOS gaining possession. SOS's Ahkeel "Smally" Boyd crossed his defender and attempted a step back two-pointer but he too missed and his teammate Jeffery Harris grabbed the rebound.

Harris posted up his defender Scipio while "Smally" sneaked behind his defender "Big Mike" and received a one-handed bounced past from Harris, to complete the match-winner, hitting the 41-marker to earn the bonus point. Once a team reaches 41 points before stoppage time (12-minute stoppage time per half), it receives four points towards the standings instead of three points. (There are two ways a team can win, the first is hav­ing the most points at the end of stop­page time or the team, which reach­es 41 points first, wins and get a point bonus.)

According to Harris, who is the coordinator of the League, the rule helps to increase the excitement.

"The competition is harder and teams are forced to play defence," he said.

It was the first loss for Buckets in six matches, to lead the standings with 20 points from five wins, the same as the unbeaten SOS team, who has 19 points though from five wins.

In the second match of the day, Grande Ext team rebounded from its disappointing 30-29 loss to Sweaters (Sangre Grande), the day before, to beat Rebels, 38-30. Nicholas Solomon and Kedan John were key in the win as all their shots from beyond the arc hit the target.

The other match saw the Ball Hungry team of St Augustine battle Sweaters to push its name up the standings after a 38-25 win thanks to the contribution of Danny De Suze, who had a great shooting night which Sweaters had no answer for.

In the other matches played the day before, Ball Hungry got a 39-33 win over Rebels, falling just short of the 41-marker by two points. Brandon Kelly from Ball Hungry took advantage of the short defenders who failed to effectively protect the rim.